Life

8 Tips from a Pro on the Rise

French professional Antony ''The Tiger'' Costes is on an IRONMAN learning curve. Apply his rookie strategies to your own training and racing.

by Selwyn Parker

An IRONMAN 70.3 race specialist until early this year, young French star Antony "Le Tigre" Costes has embarked on an IRONMAN journey that he hopes will take him to Kona later this year. But along the way he’s been learning some tough lessons.

Take IRONMAN New Zealand in Taupo in February—his debut at the distance. After a 46:40 swim for third place into T1 and a 4:33:42 hour bike for ninth, he crashed—by his standards—to a 3:19:27 run, which landed him in 12th place overall. Costes was much further down the leaderboard than he’d hoped. Keep in mind, this is a guy who scampered over the run leg in last year’s IRONMAN 70.3 European Championship in 1:14.

Costes didn’t allow his results in New Zealand to taint his outlook. He was in high spirits just two months later as he took on the IRONMAN North American Championship, Texas. After his usual excellent swim (48 minutes), he knocked off a 3:39 bike and set out on the run. Result? He ran a 3:08 for an 11-minute improvement on Taupo. He finished 12th again, but it was a hot field—and a hot day.

"I’m progressing, not as quickly as I was hoping, but I am progressing. My mistake was being a little too impatient at the start of the run leg—I went through the halfway point in 1:26—and I paid for it in the end when I was really struggling." Now, having picked up another 385 points to tack on to his Kona Ranking Points Standings, giving him 3,125 overall, he’s looking for more points. "The road continues," he says.

This guy is one to watch. He’s a fighter with an attitude to match. Every night before a big race, he says to his fiancé, Mathilde, as she gives him a last-minute massage, "My training has been perfect and we did everything as well as we could. We’re ready for anything tomorrow." It’s his way of being philosophical about the outcome, and it seems to work.

Costes had a breakthrough year last year, winning or placing in a series of races around the world, including a second place finish in the scorching heat last January in Panama. "A veritable oven," he remembers.

He’s not expecting immediate results in his IRONMAN distance attempts, however. Until last year, he was completing a Ph.D. at the University of Toulouse in cycling biomechanics, and was unable to train as much as he’d like. "As well as finishing my Ph.D., I was giving lessons to students but I still managed to get in 20-25 hours in my best weeks by using all my spare time outside of work—during my lunch break, at night, and with long weekends. Now that I’ve started to live as a full-time triathlon professional, I can hit 30 hours a week."

He’d like to train even more but he says his coach, Nicolas Hemet, won’t let him—yet.

Only four years in the pro ranks, Costes had people turning their heads by taking some risks and making improvements with each race. Notably, Frederik van der Lierde, in the same year the Belgian won Kona. In 2015, Costes raced IRONMAN 70.3 Lanzarote and finished third, followed by a first place finish in Korea, fourth place at the IRONMAN 70.3 European Championship in Wiesbaden, and a solid second place finish in Panama against a slew of tough opponents. In the 2015 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Zell-am-See, Austria, Costes suffered cramps from start to finish, and struggled in the back of the elite pack with a run that came dangerously close to two hours.

"I didn’t want to give up and I finished last of the professionals," he says, sounding almost proud of it.

Predictably for a cycling doctor, Costes has blistering speed on the bike. In Panama, Costes cleared out on his Cervelo P5, which he’s dubbed the "Tiger Express," clocking a 1:57 ride despite the heat (only to be overhauled on the run by winner Lionel Sanders of Canada). That result put the 26-year-old Frenchman on top of the world IRONMAN 70.3 rankings—"but very temporarily," he says.

Tips and tactics

Costes has some useful tips for age-groupers. First, he says, line up a cycling coach (check out the IRONMAN U CoachMatch service) and get in as much bike time as possible. If the weather’s bad or there’s too much traffic, jump on the trainer instead of abandoning the session. But if you are heading out on the roads, try and ride with others—"it’s safer and more fun," he says.

Second, as a former lifeguard and swim coach, Costes has noticed the same weakness in many struggling swimmers: their bodies are all over the place. "Work on maintaining a horizontal position in the water," he advises. "Also, make sure to practice kicking because it helps keep the legs up."

You can also learn from his race management: "I change tactics almost every race, depending mostly on the course and on the field," he explains. "To do that, I try to avoid any weakness in my swim, bike, and run." To date, he’s got a weakness in the run—at least in the full-distance events—but "The Tiger" is the kind of guy who will get it right eventually.

The next race for the PHD in biomechanics will be IRONMAN France on June 5 where, Costes has calculated, he needs to place fifth to ensure entry to Kona. As he told France’s Trimax magazine, he’s decided to try his luck over a hilly course; he usually trains in the mountains anyway and, at a racing weight of just 66kg, he thinks the terrain will suit him. Although IRONMAN Nice will only be the rising French star's third full-distance event since March, he decided to make a last-minute entry because he’s found he’s bounced back faster than he expected from IRONMAN Texas.

Selwyn Parker is an author, age-group champion triathlete, and award-winning journalist. Check out his book Chasing the Chimney Sweep about the original Tour de France in 1903.